You have no option for a believer in your survey as "so they say" ruins the best one. The day of Christmas was chosen, not because Dec 25th was the most likely day of Jesus' birth but because that day fit best at the beginning of the liturgical year. Christmas is celebrated because of St Francis.

Christians believe in an invasion of the human race by a new man who is the eternal Son of God, and still becomes totally human. That tradition needs to emphasize Jesus' natural pregnancy, birth into a normal family ( one that had no idol worship infection), and learned obedience by what he suffered.

That is celebrated as a gift of God's love and joyfully received.

But to unbelievers, all of that is silly nonsense. Who could believe that there is a New Man that lives in us and we in Him?

Look, there's Jason saying "because it's fun" should be an option. I could have tried harder to compress "because it's fun" into the first option.

Have some empathy. Making options on a poll isn't easy. There's always somebody saying there's another way of putting it that should have been added as an independent option, and now here you are saying an option needed to be broken into 2 options so that you weren't put in the position of having to vote for something you want to disavow.

The only comment I agree with, so far, is Mike Haz's simple "Merry Christmas." Jason and Paddy O's thinking on the subject is shallow. CR Krieger and Dave pick a fight. Tg is Tg, which is admirable, but still.

I say we celebrate Christmas because that's what we do. Fuck the pagans, and the Romans, and the Christians. I was born in 1961, not 61BC or 16AD - and I could give a fuck what you believe about the history of the world if it doesn't include dinosaurs - which none of your belief systems do. You're all bonkers.

So I'm with Mike Haz:

"Merry Christmas," you fucking fruitcakes. You're the masters of your own madness. Own it.

I love Christmas! But the spirit of Christmas is how we trust and respect others. The NYT story about Mitt Romney and his family at Harvard Business School is excellent example. Of course, the GOP will not be able to read the story - it is invisible.

What we choose to see in Christmas is what we want to see. We want to see Newt as the POTUS, it is unthinkable. We want to see Perry as V-POTUS, it is unthinkable. But, we live in a real world. The GOP lives in a virtual world. So, they see what we do not see.

Oh well...Aloha from Hawaii. It is beginning to look like Christmas - I mean, I will have a corner office after the re-election.

...and I could give a fuck what you believe about the history of the world if it doesn't include dinosaurs - which none of your belief systems do.

Wow Crack I thought you knew more about this stuff than to say that. Catholics believe the creation stories are symbolic, and there's nothing in evolutionary theory that conflicts with Catholicism. You just can't posit evolution absent God.

I posted a lot about this here in the comments to another thread with quotes from the catechism...I guess it was a couple years ago.

The Crack Emcee: Jason and Paddy O's thinking on the subject is shallow.

So? Since at the least the 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas Special, people have been whining about "the true meaning of Christmas". I don't by it. Why does celebration have to be cerebral and heavy? Celebration can be happy, fun, and joyous.

But some people have to make a big thing about how serious they are, about how much more Christian they are than everyone else. Bah humbug to that! We do say MERRY Christmas after all.

The secularists may be having a war on Christmas, but the Christians seem to be having a war on Merry.

Wow Crack I thought you knew more about this stuff than to say that. Catholics believe the creation stories are symbolic, and there's nothing in evolutionary theory that conflicts with Catholicism. You just can't posit evolution absent God.